Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation
Green is sprouting up and spreading all over Arlington County, Va. Hundreds of new trees are adding their foliage to the canopy. Residential properties are being converted into communal gardens. Indigenous plants, once crowded out by invasive species, are thriving. Fox, flowers, and frogs, thought gone from the area for good, are making a comeback.
These successes didn’t happen overnight, but took countless hours of planning, research, and manpower. Preserving and improving green space has been a challenging—and at times daunting—undertaking by the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), but the community has made it a top priority, and the commitment is paying off.
A Master Plan For Success
As with any large-scale endeavor, planning is the key. Touting sustainability as a priority is easy, but in a densely populated county with land at a development premium, a concrete plan is needed to keep green from turning into gray concrete.